Guwahati, Nov 17
An Assam Rifles patrol was targeted in an attempted improvised explosive device (IED) attack, claimed by the banned People’s Liberation Army (PLA), in Manipur’s Tengnoupal district on Thursday. None of the personnel – around 10 – in the targeted vehicle were injured, officials said.
The incident took place at around 8.15 am in the general area of Saibol in Tengnoupal district, an area with a mixed population of different communities. An Assam Rifles official stated that the attack had been carried out by “unidentified insurgents”.
A patrol of the 20 Assam Rifles Battalion from the company operating base in Saibol was out on a routine area domination patrol that had begun early Thursday morning when the incident took place.
“At around 8-8.15 am, a group of unidentified insurgents attempted to attack the patrol while it was moving in a mine-protected vehicle, and there was an IED blast. There were also bursts of small arms fire. The Assam Rifles personnel retaliated immediately,” said the official.
Subsequently, search operations were launched to find and “neutralise” the assailants.
The PLA said in a statement on Thursday evening that it carried out the attack on the patrol. It is one of the seven “Meitei Extremist Organisations” on which the Union Ministry of Home Affairs on Monday extended a ban under the UAPA for another five years.
This attack on security personnel comes more than six months after violence first broke out in Manipur on May 3, and the state continues to have a heavy presence of central security forces and the Army. There are a total of 23 Assam Rifles battalions deployed in Manipur since May 3 in areas based on “operational necessity”. Through the course of the ongoing conflict, the Assam Rifles has found itself at loggerheads with different stakeholders from the Meitei-dominated valley, which have made demands for their removal from the state, alleging that they have been acting in a partisan manner in favour of the state’s Kuki-Zomi community.
